Israel's confidence that the global focus on the Persian Gulf conflict would improve its relations with the United States has given way to pervasive anger at the Bush Administration for being kept at arm's length during the crisis. Mistrust deepened during President Bush's trip last week to Saudi Arabia and Egypt and because of his meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad in Switzerland. Bush skipped Israel on his tour of the Middle East, as did Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

In an unusually blunt assessment, a high-ranking Egyptian official on Thursday said the Bush administration's often-repeated assertion that the U.S. cannot impose Middle East peace is not good enough and that it is time for Washington to play a much more active role mediating between Israel and the Palestinians.

The White House on Tuesday flatly rejected Iranian suggestions that the "ball is now in the American court" in the hostage stalemate. "The ball has always been in their court," Bush Administration spokesman Marlin Fitzwater insisted. "It will be as long as there are hostages yet to be released." The Administration response reflects President Bush's strategy of maintaining a relatively low profile on the issue and keeping attention focused on Iran and its Lebanese Shiite Muslim allies.

With pervasive anti-American sentiment in the Arab world threatening President Bush's Middle East policy, the Voice of America wants to completely remake its Arab-language broadcasts to appeal to a younger, more radical audience. Under a plan awaiting approval by the independent board responsible for U.S.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz told Congress on Tuesday that the thrust of a new American diplomatic initiative in the Middle East is to help the people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip "to have a greater sense of political control over the way they live." In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Shultz avoided providing any details of what the United States is proposing, but he suggested that the general approach is not radically different from previous U.S.

February 23, 1992 | DOUGLAS FRANTZ and MURRAY WAAS, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Frantz is a Times staff writer and Waas is a special correspondent.

In the fall of 1989, at a time when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was only nine months away and Saddam Hussein was desperate for money to buy arms, President Bush signed a top-secret National Security Decision directive ordering closer ties with Baghdad and opening the way for $1 billion in new aid, according to classified documents and interviews. The $1-billion commitment, in the form of loan guarantees for the purchase of U.S.

With civil wars in Africa threatening to spread to neighboring countries, and a Balkan conflict ready to erupt again, President Clinton's impeachment-clouded administration faces a growing list of war-or-peace decisions in the new year--even if it is able to keep Iraq in a strategic box.

Only three months ago, President Clinton was presiding over summit talks that held the promise of a Mideast peace agreement. But Monday, Clinton and his aides were at work on a far graver effort--trying to prevent a full-scale Arab-Israeli war.

Senior U.S. officials are growing increasingly frustrated and skeptical about the prospects for major covert action, particularly in the Middle East, during President Bush's reelection campaign. The officials say the Administration, concerned about the potential controversy of costly, prolonged or complex operations, is opting for comparatively low-key actions, notably against Iraq and Libya, that would avoid the need for U.S. troops in prominent roles, either directly or as backups.

Saddam Hussein is facing increasing challenges to his grip on power in Iraq, but even if he were deposed, his successor probably would come from the current ruling circle and share Hussein's regional military ambitions, CIA Director Robert M. Gates said Friday. Gates would not predict whether or when Hussein might be toppled but said that his decades of repressive rule demonstrate that "he will do whatever it takes to cling to power." But the CIA chief said U.S.

Only three months ago, President Clinton was presiding over summit talks that held the promise of a Mideast peace agreement. But Monday, Clinton and his aides were at work on a far graver effort--trying to prevent a full-scale Arab-Israeli war.

With civil wars in Africa threatening to spread to neighboring countries, and a Balkan conflict ready to erupt again, President Clinton's impeachment-clouded administration faces a growing list of war-or-peace decisions in the new year--even if it is able to keep Iraq in a strategic box.

Struggling to prevent an offhand remark by his wife from scuttling plans for Israeli-Palestinian summit talks next week, President Clinton sent peace envoy Dennis B. Ross back to the Middle East on Thursday. At the same time, the president turned to a less familiar side of U.S. ethnic politics with an address to an Arab American conference. Ross left for Jerusalem to try to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept U.S.

Raising the prospect of cuts in U.S. economic support to the Middle East if funding of America's foreign aid is reduced further, Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Wednesday challenged Congress to provide the money that he says is vital to maintaining American global leadership.

The Rev. Darrel Meyers is on a political pilgrimage from Van Nuys to the Middle East. On Thursday, Meyers headed off to Washington, D.C., on the first leg of a trip to the Middle East, where he, along with 22 other U.S. citizens ranging from journalists to financial investors, will embark on a quest to gain understanding of Middle Eastern politics and culture.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher has successfully defused the violence in southern Lebanon and breathed life into the Middle East peace talks. But he has also thrust the United States into a high-risk gamble, betting on a comprehensive peace accord by early 1994. On the surface, the results of Christopher's just-completed trip to the Middle East seem modest. By his own admission, there were no major breakthroughs on substantive issues nor even a firm date for resuming the stalemated talks.

Several leaders of the American Jewish community have launched a quiet campaign to dissuade President-elect Bill Clinton from naming Los Angeles lawyer Warren Christopher as secretary of state, warning that the choice might alienate an important part of Clinton's constituency. Christopher, who was the State Department's second-ranking official under President Jimmy Carter, has been a key Clinton adviser during the presidential campaign.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher has successfully defused the violence in southern Lebanon and breathed life into the Middle East peace talks. But he has also thrust the United States into a high-risk gamble, betting on a comprehensive peace accord by early 1994. On the surface, the results of Christopher's just-completed trip to the Middle East seem modest. By his own admission, there were no major breakthroughs on substantive issues nor even a firm date for resuming the stalemated talks.

Several leaders of the American Jewish community have launched a quiet campaign to dissuade President-elect Bill Clinton from naming Los Angeles lawyer Warren Christopher as secretary of state, warning that the choice might alienate an important part of Clinton's constituency. Christopher, who was the State Department's second-ranking official under President Jimmy Carter, has been a key Clinton adviser during the presidential campaign.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Bill Clinton accused President Bush on Tuesday of following a policy of "appeasement" toward Saddam Hussein in the years before the Gulf War, launching a sharp attack at Bush's point of greatest political strength--his experience in foreign policy. Speaking before an audience of Jewish community leaders in Washington and, by satellite, in Los Angeles, Clinton delivered a series of lines certain to please supporters of Israel.